Wednesday, March 07, 2012

When Bad Things Happen To Bad People

There have been myriad consequences flowing from the Republican Party's decision to make birth control an election issue under the guise of religious freedom.

Even more woman voters are migrating away from the former GOP Big Tent, Mitt Romney has had to do one of his on-demand flip-flops on whether employers beyond religious organizations should be able to refuse to underwrite family planning costs (he's now for it, of course) and least consequential but most delicious of all, radio talkmeister Rush Limbaugh is losing advertisers like leaves from a walnut tree in October after three straight days of calling a Georgetown University law student who testified before Congress a whore and a slut and then issuing a non-apology. (UPDATE: He has now issued an apology stunning for its candor.)

The issue has now spun so out of control that the publicity is almost entirely negative, which Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski found out to her chagrin. She now says that she would not back the measure, which she said she had in order to make a statement about religious freedom, if asked to vote on it again.

That is what happens -- okay, sometimes happens -- when politicians or in this case a political party go all pious for devious reasons. It is a beautiful thing.

3 comments:

It never ceases to amaze me how the good ol' GOP feels the need to control women's reproductive health.

Ohio senator Nina Turner pulled an interesting twist on that theme recently with a proposed bill to help regulate a man's reproductive health choices. If you haven't seen the MSNBC interview it's worth watching!

I have wanted to learn more about particular topics, but not many websites would help me out in informing me the way I expected. This left me with many question, but after reading your article, I got an answer to all my questions. You are too cool dude!!!

About Me

Shaun Mullen was born to blog. It just took a few years for the medium to catch up to the messenger. Over a long career with newspapers, this award-winning editor and reporter covered the Vietnam War, O.J. Simpson trials, Clinton impeachment circus and coming of Osama bin Laden, among many other big stories. Mullen was a five-time Pulitzer Prize nominee and has covered 12 presidential campaigns. He is the author of "The Bottom of the Fox: A True Story of Love, Devotion & Cold-Blooded Murder" (2010) and "There's A House In The Land: A Tale of the 1970s" (2014). Both books are available for sale online in trade paperback and Kindle editions. Much of Mullen's work is archived and can be accessed online in the Shaun D. Mullen Journalism Papers in Special Collections at the University of Delaware Library.